As you know by now, every penny you donate is used as carefully as possible to raise awareness and support for the soon-to-be-a-reality project. We live on a bare-bones budget and need your help today to continue to provide important outreach to our communities. As the fight for getting financial backing for the project winds down, the importance of educating the communities about the timeline, the path, and the hurdles still looming continues.

Please take a moment to add your name to our generous sponsors - any amount is appreciated - your donations have a real impact on our goal of making the community aware of where the Purple Line will be, the timeline for getting it built, the process necessary to gain funding and approval, and most importantly, to advocate and educate our elected officials about the importance of getting this project underway as soon as possible.

In the past year alone, here's what Purple Line NOW has been working on:

1) Attending many local and state meetings to testify, participate in, and advocate for the Purple Line. Our board and team of dedicated volunteers are out in force at Purple Line-oriented meetings and events, and regularly connect with our congressional delegation to keep the Purple Line at the forefront of their work.

2) We have advocated for and met with county officials to push for a dynamic Purple Line display at the new Silver Spring Library to help the community understand where the path of the Line will pass. Just a few weeks ago, this beautiful display went up and we are thrilled to have been a part of the hard work of pushing to make it happen.

3) Purple Line NOW kicked off the first forum in the Envisioning the Purple Line Series called Purple Line and a New College Park on February 22 at the University of Maryland. The forum brought together leaders from the university, housing industry, City of College Park, and student body to talk about the impact the Purple Line will have on the university and the greater College Park area.

4) We presented the second forum in the Envisioning the Purple Line series on April 21 at Montgomery College to a sold-out crowd. A Purple Line Update featured Maryland Secretary of Transportation, Pete Rahn and a knowledgeable and enthusiastic panel moderated by WAMU's Transportation Reporter Martin Di Caro and included Qingbin Cui, Associate Professor of Civil Engineering at the University of Maryland College Park, Charles Lattuca, Executive Director for Transit Development and Delivery at the Maryland Transit Administration, and Montgomery County Councilmember George Leventhal.

5) Purple Line NOW manages a brand new website that brings all of the Purple Line breaking news to you in an easy to read format, packed full of information to keep everyone up-to-date on the progress of the project. And, we manage a Facebook page and Twitterpresence as well, to spread the word!

6) We are currently planning the next two events in the Envisioning the Purple Line Series, one featuring best practices from other communities who have utilized the P3 Partnership model and one in the Takoma/Langley Crossroads area to bring the community up to date on the Purple Line. Dates and panels will be announced soon (so keep your eyes peeled for your invitation - the last event was sold out!)

7) As always, we monitor important meetings that may have an impact of the timeline of the project, we are working with county officials to have signage posted along the Purple Line route so our communities know where the train will run, and we continue to work with local media to provide as much outreach as possible to the community at large.

We are only able to do all these things because of your support and we ask you to take a moment to help us continue our work. Even small donations, when all our members give, add up to a lot!

Thank you - for all you do for Purple Line NOW, for the project, and for our communities!